2023-06-06

Readings in 2023 — early June edition

I haven’t been good at doing these lists and collecting what I read recently, let’s try to come back to it.

Nix: Reasonable Default Configs, down to earth config options for the nix tool.
dream2nix is a structured, systematic effort to build the infrastructure for the management of language-specific dependencies (think npm, pip, cargo dependencies) in nix derivations. The state of the art is that each ecosystem has its own tools (npmlock2nix, crane, …), some of them integrated in nixpkgs, many not. The dream2nix project is making really good strides in defining a common API (based on modules, ideas like drv-parts and flake-parts) and reusable components like fetchers, a language-agnostic lock format, etc. The new (v1) API is very very early stage, but it’s there in the main repo now, I want to play more with it and maybe build on top of it soon.
flake-parts to standardize the glue in flake-based projects using the tried and true NixOS module system. Implemented at Prisma. Big fan.
drv-parts does the same for derivations. It is definitely more intrusive, and that made me skeptical at first, but after thinking about the problem and trying out drv-parts, I’m now convinced this is going in the right direction. drv-parts is a concrete implementation, but the ideas have been talked about by Eelco and are being actively investigated in the pkgs-module working group.

Kafka vs Redpanda Performance - Do the claims add up?. Good database benchmarking inspiration.
Project Loom for Distributed Systems Worth reading even if you are already familiar with the FoundationDB testing story and Jepsen. It puts things into more perspective. A few links. (ScyllaDB testing in particular, and Will Wilson’s FoundationDB talk: video). Good points about benchmarking.

Permacomputing itself, continuing on the gemini readings from previous posts. Fun, cute. Potentially good environment for fun projects.
Uxn — reminds me of WASM4 but more general, sounds potentially like a lot of fun.